FBI investigating how stun gun made its way onto Newark-bound flight

Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-LedgerA JetBlue flight lands at Newark Liberty International Airport in this file photo. Authorities discovered a stun gun on board a Boston-area flight that landed in Newark late Sunday night. It is unclear who the weapon belonged to.

NEWARK — The Striker 1800kv looks like an ordinary cell phone, but carries a punch meant to incapacitate.

How the small stun gun got on board a JetBlue flight to Newark on Sunday night is now the focus of a FBI investigation, while raising new questions about the security of the nation’s airports — just a day after a 53-year-old Alpine man was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport for having two stun guns in a checked bag.

The device at Newark was found by an airline cleaning crew member in a seatback compartment on JetBlue Flight 1179, just after 10 p.m. on Sunday, following its arrival from Boston at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to a police report of the incident.

"We don’t think this was part of an attack," said Bryan Travers, a spokesman for the FBI’s Newark office. "Somebody probably brought something onto the plane that they weren’t supposed to have and they probably inadvertently left it behind."

A central question for investigators is whether the device made it through metal detector at an airport security checkpoint. Typically, stun guns are made largely of plastic, although necessary components include metal conducting rods that, when both touched to a person’s body, transmit an intense electrical current that causes a temporary loss of muscle control.

Stun guns are not permitted as carry-on items for civilians. However, law enforcement officers can carry them with proper notification, according to a federal security official who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The official said federal air marshals do not carry stun guns.

Logan and Newark are both so-called 9/11 airports. Two of the airliners hijacked in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — American Airlines Flight 11 and United Fight 175 — both took off from Logan before slamming into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center, respectively. United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark before being crashing into a field in Pennsylvania.

Travers said the investigation of the JetBlue incident is being led by the FBI’s Boston office.

"We just want to know how and why the device got on the plane," Travers said.

He added that the FBI knows the identity of the passengers in the row behind the seat where the device was found, and noted "they were not law enforcement."

The stun gun was identified as a Striker 1800kv, which claims to deliver a 1.8 million volt charge. It sells for about $20.

It was unclear where the JetBlue plane had been before Boston, or whether it was cleaned before taking off from Logan. A JetBlue spokesman, Bryan Baldwin, declined to comment beyond a statement that said the flight had carried 96 customers, all of whom were already off the plane when the stun gun was found.

"The police came on board the aircraft and initiated an investigation into the matter. The next flight was delayed slightly as a result," Baldwin said.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, said the incident at Newark was "the latest in a troubling pattern of breaches in our aviation security system."

"TSA and the FBI need to quickly determine how this stun gun made it on to a plane, and we need assurances that steps are being taken to make sure this doesn’t happen again," Lautenberg said.

Travers said that stun guns are illegal in New Jersey, and said law enforcement officers would be prohibited from bringing one into the state. Stun guns are also banned in New York and Massachusetts, where the JetBlue flight originated.

New York’s ban was highlighted on Sunday, when Othon K. Mourkakos of Alpine was at arrested Kennedy International with two stun guns in a checked bag. His lawyer, Nicholas Sekas, said Mourkakos was bringing the devices to a police officer in Greece, and had been told by the online dealer he bought them from that it would be legal for him to transport them. Sekas said he plans to seek a dismissal at a hearing in September.